


Wide World

by Odyle



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: F/M, Post-Season/Series 01
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-15
Updated: 2014-08-15
Packaged: 2018-02-13 05:12:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2138259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Odyle/pseuds/Odyle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What she would have was Earth and a life people on the Ark had only dreamed of.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wide World

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thesleepingsatellite](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesleepingsatellite/gifts).



> Thank you to my betas D and G for taking the time to read this.

They carried on toward the east. Lincoln was very serious about putting distance between them and whatever was going on near Mount Weather. She struggled to keep pace with him. Her body ached at the end of each day’s hike, and she slept harder than she ever had in her life. It was a dreamless sleep. She was so weary that when she awoke again, she felt as if she had barely slept at all. 

“How much farther?” Octavia asked him. 

“Only a few more days.” 

She could tell that he was worried about her. They had laid low for some time, hiding in a bunker not far from camp. He had gone out only at night to forage for food. Octavia actually ate better in hiding with Lincoln than she had in camp. 

As soon as he had thought she was able, they left. 

Octavia did most of her crying when she was alone in the bunker. It wasn’t until she was by herself in the bunker that she felt how alone she truly was. All of her life, there had always been her brother. Now she wasn’t sure if she would ever see him again, despite the promises they made. Octavia had only cried so much once before in her life, after she was put in her cell. If Lincoln came back and found her, her eyes still puffy and red from sobbing, she told him she was in pain. If he knew the truth, he’d made no indication. 

He wasn’t talkative. If she asked him a question, he would give her an answer. The only times he started a conversation were to warn her or check on her. 

“Do we need to go slower?” he asked her. The question seemed to come up at least ten times a day. 

“I’m good,” Octavia replied each time. 

She didn’t tell him that she was afraid or that she missed Bellamy. She was ready for adventure, but other things weighed on her mind. Lincoln wouldn’t be able to solve her problems; she simply wished that she felt like she could tell him about them. 

Once they were two days out from Mt. Weather, he had relaxed. Lincoln stopped speaking in whispers, and he started to build small campfires at night to keep them warm. He didn’t seem worried about other people or whatever else was out there in the woods. 

Each morning, he woke her up and went to get water, and then they would eat breakfast before setting out on the day’s hike. Octavia struggled against the desire to curl up and go back to sleep for a few more hours. She pushed herself up to sit up. The ground wasn’t comfortable, but when you got tired enough, it didn’t matter how rough you were sleeping. 

She woke up in stages rather than all at once. After a few minutes of sitting up she started stretching, testing her sore muscles. The ground wasn’t comfortable, but when you got tired enough, it didn’t matter how rough you were sleeping. 

She was still waking up when Lincoln returned that morning. Octavia had rolled her ankle the day before and fallen part of the way down a hill. Lincoln had had to carry her pack for the last few hours of the day’s hike. Her ankle still felt a little tender, but it would probably be strong enough to hold her. Octavia felt bad having him carry her stuff when she already depended on him for so much. 

“There’s something I want to show you,” he said as he handed her canteen. 

“What is it?” 

Her body screamed at her to stay put, that she should rest as much as she could, but Octavia was curious. Lincoln showed her things he seemed to think were important--how to track animals and what kinds of plants you could eat. She hadn’t had the benefit of Earth skills classes like the other children on the Ark. Octavia struggled to her feet. 

“Get your pack.” 

He gathered his things and packed them away in his bag. Lincoln travelled light and was a meticulous packer. He had few things, but he knew where they all were and could produce them quickly. Octavia hurried to stuff the blanket she’d been sleeping under into her own bag then put on her boots. 

Lincoln led her through the forest, back toward the creek they had passed the day before, to a clump of tangled vines that had overtaken another bush and a few trees. The vine was covered in little white and yellow flowers.

He pinched a small white flower from a tangle of brush and offered it to her. 

“Thanks,” Octavia said, staring at it in her palm. 

“It’s honey suckle. You can eat it.” 

“Sure, I _can_ eat it, but why would I want to?” 

Lincoln took the flower from her palm. Gently, he pinched the base off the flower free and pulled back, drawing the stamen into the body of the flower. A bead of moisture appeared at the base. Lincoln lifted the flower to his mouth and licked away the dab of nectar.

“And?” Octavia asked. 

“Sweet. You should try one.” 

He pulled another flower off of the bush and handed it to her. She hadn’t had anything sweet in months, not since before she’d been found. Bellamy had always snuck her candy on the high holidays, the few days of the year that the Ark had produced frivolous foods like desserts. Down here, they didn’t have fruits or sugar or anything sweet. 

Octavia took the little white flower and followed his example, pinching the base and drawing the stamen back through the body of the flower. She touched her tongue to the base Instantly, the sweetness hit her. The little flower wasn’t overly sweet, but the absence of the taste over so many months made it overwhelming. 

Octavia dropped the flower and reached for another. 

She ate more and more while Lincoln watched her. She didn’t care that he was watching. It reminded her of home, her mother, her brother, and everything she would never have again.

What she would have was Earth, and a life those on the Ark had only dreamed of.

\---

Their path took them across the remains of roads, but Lincoln avoided them. It was for the best, Octavia thought, but it made the already difficult hike even more taxing. He was guiding them through thick, sometimes swampy forest. The days were growing shorter and the nights were cooler, but that hadn’t seemed to discourage the insect life. Octavia found herself busy swatting away mosquitos. At night she would find bites in places that hadn’t been uncovered. She scratched until Lincoln scolded her.

In the dip between the hills was a crop of tall bushes sporting vibrant magenta flowers. They grew wild and bushy, each of their branches spread out and growing high, reaching for the gaps of sunlight that filtered through the canopy of pines. It was like nothing else she had seen in her months on earth. 

“What do they call these?” Octavia asked. 

“Azaleas.” 

Bees floated in and out of the flowers, going from blossom to blossom. Bees meant honey; she wondered if there were hives nearby.

“They’re beautiful.” 

“There are a lot of them in this area.” 

“Did people plant them?”

“Some of them. Most of them are native.” 

Octavia tried to pull one of the flowers from the bush, but only managed to tear it. She turned to Lincoln to ask for help, but he was already at work cutting a bloom free with his pocket knife. 

“They don’t smell,” Octavia said as she accepted the flower. “Before I came to Earth, I thought all flowers smelled that really sweet smell. I wondered how people could stand to be in gardens.” 

She tucked the flower behind one ear and looked up at Lincoln. 

He leaned down to kiss her. Octavia took the opportunity to wrap her arms around his neck. He smelled good--like sweat and woodsmoke. The impulse to bury her face in his shirt raced through her mind. She hated to think about how she smelled. 

“You like flowers?” 

“I guess... I don’t have much experience with them.” 

“You didn’t have them on the Ark?” 

“We didn’t have a lot of plants. There was a tree. Not that I ever got to see it.” 

She looked away from the confusion on Lincoln’s face, back to the azaleas.

\---

They were in the ruins of the city before Octavia realized it. It was no longer a city, but it had once been. The forest had yet to completely reclaim this land. The roads were cracked and overgrown with moss and grass, but the remnants of buildings still stood. Metal and stone skeletons reached upward into the sky, casting shadows over them as they picked their way through the streets. Lincoln led them through mazes of trees and over the fallen stone edifaces that blocked their path.

“What happened here?”

“Time,” he said, looking at what remained. “War.” 

Octavia asked no more questions. She followed him in silence. It unsettled her to walk through the streets, though they barely resembled that anymore. The place still felt like a city. It still looked like it could be again, if only there were people to rebuild it and populate it. 

They walked and walked until the sun began to set. Octavia had never imagined that a city could be so large. All of the people who had built this city, all crammed together on top of each other, were gone. It was hard to fathom so many people living, let alone in one place. 

“Are there more cities like this?” Octavia asked.

“All over the world.” 

“And all of them like this.” 

“All of them I have ever heard of,” Lincoln said. There was no sadness there. It was almost as if she’d asked him if he thought it would rain in the afternoon or if he could stop for a moment to let her re-tie her boot laces. 

They took shelter for the night in the remains of a building. The roof had fallen long ago, but two brick walls still stood to block the wind. Lincoln didn’t start a fire, but instead sat against a wall and motioned to Octavia to join him.

It was the night of the new moon. The sky was darker than it had ever been since they left everyone else back at the camp. 

Octavia leaned back against his chest. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer. Lincoln was warm, even through the layers that separated their skin. She wanted to turn her head and kiss his neck, his jaw, whatever she could touch. 

“Clear sky tonight,” Lincoln said. “A good night for stargazing.” 

“Stargazing?” 

“Watching the stars.” 

“Why would anyone want to do that?” 

She had been desperate to see stars once, back when she had lived on the Ark. On Earth you could see them as long as the night wasn’t too cloudy. They were commonplace. She had sat outside at night to stare at the stars when she first arrived on Earth. That phase had lasted only a few nights before she realized that the stars changed very little and that her time was better spent on other people.

“The stars show us the beauty and the order in the universe.”

He took her hand in his. 

“Point your finger,” he instructed and she obeyed. 

Lincoln gently guided her hand until her finger pointed to a grouping of stars low on the horizon to the northeast. 

“That’s Cygnus. The swan.”

“People named the stars?” 

“All over the world. People told stories about constellations.” Lincoln guided her hand to point at another. “That one is Orion. His belt with three stars, his shoulders, a club…” 

“What did he do?” 

“He was a great hunter, according to one of the ancient civilizations.”

Octavia watched as Lincoln traced the shape of the constellation with her hand. 

“They say that the cities were so bright that no one could see the Milky Way, but look,” Lincoln said. 

He moved her to point at a different part of the sky. There was a band across the sky where the light was mottled. She’d almost thought it was clouds in the sky, but it made sense that this was something different. Watching it, she could see the different colors, blue and black and grays. 

“It’s beautiful. Why would they block it out?” 

The world was quiet all around them. Octavia realized that she was content there in his arms. There were still things that were wrong--she missed her brother and her body felt close to breaking from the strain of hiking for weeks--but she felt at peace. Her world was no longer defined by four walls, but by the abundance she saw all around her. 

Lincoln placed a kiss on top of her head. 

“Show me more,” Octavia said. “I want to see it all.”


End file.
